Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Mary Peelen

March 23, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

"The x could have been
anything at all,

the sound of wind chimes,
a gong, a choir, a cantor,

a mermaid, a schoolman,
cathedral bells..."
--from "Variable" which appears in the Winter 2016 issue (Volume 57, Issue 4).

Tell us about one of the first pieces you’ve written

In general, it takes me ages to write a poem, as each piece goes through multiple edits over a period of months but there was one exception. My first publication in a professional journal, Alaska Quarterly Review, was a poem I wrote for a class assignment while I was doing my...

10 Questions for Jeannie Tseng

March 21, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

"The mouse pup moves in anguish but its screams are ultrasonic, heard only by its mother. The fingers and toes are clearly defined--each one finishing in a delicate nail. Round, black eyeballs are visible underneath translucent eyelids: it's a miniature alien nestling in the palm of her hand. Ziggy drops the pup onto the cold, stainless steel countertop and stretches out the tiny body against the ruler. This newborn mouse--only four days old--flails its stunted limbs, unaware of its greater destiny."
--from "Data Driven" which appears in the Spring 2017 issue (Volume 58, Issue 1).

Tell us about one of the first pieces you...

10 Questions for Ting Wang

March 15, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

"Fantaisie Impromptu. That's Chopin, of course. The record--held in a pink sleeve (or it should be pink)--was a pirated copy: ten yuan apiece, or nine if you buy more. It wasn't mine though. It was lent to me by a high-school classmate of my classmate from primary school. They were attending an all-girls high school..."
--from Fantaisie Impromptu which appears in the Winter 2016 issue (Volume 57, Issue 4).

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated

Among the early pieces I translated are...

10 Questions for Judith Filc

March 13, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

“LISTEN: MUSIC IS BORN from the human mind, but it also appears naturally, like the smell of malt, like the taste of celery. Humans desperately try to precent it from slipping through their fingers. They fasten it to the score, to instruments, to commentaries, to theory books, to records...”
--from Perfect Pitch which appears in the Winter 2016 issue (Volume 57, Issue 4).

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated

I translated a series of poems for a bilingual anthology edited by Chilean poet Gonzalo Contreras. It's called Poéticas de Chile/Chilean Poets on the Art of Poetry...

10 Questions for Amanda Anastasi

March 7, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

"Fingertips ready at the page tip
with the vigilance of a physician.
An executor of Chopin herself,
she knows the crests and tides
of the Revolutionary:"
--from "The Page Turner" which appears in the Winter 2016 issue (Volume 57, Issue 4).

Tell us about one of the first pieces you’ve written

One of the first poems I ever wrote was a little poem called Vincent, about Vincent van Gogh.  I was fascinated with his paintings as a kid. I suppose it is my fascination with strong, resonant imagery which drew me to the genre of...